[CTC] Nafta Round Ends With No Sign of Consensus on Big-Ticket Issues

Tue Nov 21 18:20:24 PST 2017

Four articles on  just-concluded NAFTA round below…

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-21/u-s-cites-progress-but-no-breakthroughs-in-latest-nafta-talks <https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-21/u-s-cites-progress-but-no-breakthroughs-in-latest-nafta-talks>

BLOOMBERG

Nafta Round Ends With No Sign of Consensus on Big-Ticket Issues
By Josh Wingrove, Eric Martin, and Andrew Mayeda
November 21, 2017, 5:19 PM EST Updated on November 21, 2017, 5:31 PM EST
Negotiators fail to finalize any new sections of agreement
Further talks set for Washington in Dec., Montreal in Jan.

The latest round of Nafta talks wrapped up without major breakthroughs, the latest signal talks have bogged down on controversial proposals from U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.

Negotiators fell short of finishing work on any individual section of the agreement during this round, according to two people familiar with the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity. A senior U.S. official briefing reporters on Nafta on Tuesday didn’t identify any specific areas or indicate that agreement was reached on any new chapters.

While the U.S. has presented the bulk of its proposals, it’d like to see counteroffers and more engagement, including on vehicles, according to the American official.

The U.S. has proposed increasing the regional content requirement for autos to qualify for Nafta’s tariff benefits to 85 percent from 62.5 percent and add a rule that 50 percent of the car must be built in the U.S. Mexico and Canada have rejected this demand.

The just-concluded negotiation was the first to not include the cabinet figures leading negotiations. Instead, less-senior staff and bureaucrats were tasked largely to plod ahead on more minor areas.

Talks scheduled for next month in Washington will be on a smaller scale than previous rounds. Those will be followed by the official sixth round in Montreal Jan. 23-28.

In the latest round, Mexico proposed limiting access to government contracts for U.S. firms, effectively a tit-for-tat proposal after the U.S. made a similar move. The U.S. official on Tuesday said Mexico’s offer doesn’t move the ball forward.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, speaking in Ottawa on Tuesday, said there’d been “good progress” but that “significant differences remain” on key issues such as the auto rules-of-origin and dispute panels.

The sprint for a U.S. tax overhaul this year has overtaken much of the agenda in Washington, diverting some attention from Nafta. There’s still no clear path to a deal on a successor to the North American Free Trade Agreement, which governs more than $1 trillion in trade between the U.S. and its two biggest export markets.

— With assistance by Greg Quinn

POLITICO

Lighthizer: Time for Canada, Mexico to get serious in NAFTA talks

By Doug Palmer 
11/21/2017 06:38 PM EDT

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer lashed out at Canada and Mexico today, accusing them of failing to engage seriously in talks on renegotiating NAFTA.

"While we have made progress on some of our efforts to modernize NAFTA, I remain concerned about the lack of headway," Lighthizer said in a statement at the end of the fifth round of talks in Mexico City. "Thus far, we have seen no evidence that Canada or Mexico are willing to seriously engage on provisions that will lead to a rebalanced agreement. Absent rebalancing, we will not reach a satisfactory result."

Lighthizer made no reference to President Donald Trump's repeated threats to withdraw from the pact unless Canada and Mexico agree to new terms. But his frustration with the course of the negotiations was apparent in his brief two-paragraph statement.

"A rebalanced, updated NAFTA will promote greater prosperity for American workers, farmers, ranchers and businesses and strengthen the North American region as a whole," Lighthizer said. "Our teams will be meeting again next month in Washington. I hope our partners will come to the table in a serious way so we can see meaningful progress before the end of the year."

POLITICO 
Chief Negotiators’ Statement: Some progress made on NAFTA, next round set for Jan. 23-28 in Montreal

By Megan Cassella 
11/21/2017 06:27 PM EDT

MEXICO CITY — Chief NAFTA negotiators issued a terse joint statement today, saying some progress had been made in the fifth round of talks over the past seven days. However, no chapters were closed in a sign of the difficulty surrounding the overall negotiations.

The statement said the countries had agreed to hold the sixth round of negotiations from Jan. 23-28, 2018, in Montreal, Canada. Negotiators will also continue their work in meetings in Washington, D.C., in December, the statement said.

The complete statement reads:

"Today in Mexico City, the negotiating teams of Mexico, Canada, and the United States, concluded the Fifth Round of the renegotiation and modernization of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), gathering nearly 30 negotiating groups.

"In response to Ministerial instructions at the end of the Fourth Round, Chief Negotiators concentrated on making progress with the aim of narrowing gaps and finding solutions. As a result, progress was made in a number of chapters.

"Chief Negotiators reaffirmed their commitment to moving forward in all areas of the negotiations, in order to conclude negotiations as soon as possible. Ministers have agreed to hold the Sixth Round of Negotiations from January 23-28, 2018, in Montreal, Canada. 

"In the meantime, negotiators will continue their work in intersessional meetings in Washington, D.C., throughout mid-December and will report back to Chief Negotiators on the progress achieved."

POLITICO

Mexico says NAFTA talks proceeding at 'good pace'
By SABRINA RODRIGUEZ <https://www.politicopro.com/staff/sabrina-rodriguez>
11/21/2017 03:34 PM EST

MEXICO CITY — Mexican negotiators remain optimistic of the prospects of reaching a modernized NAFTA as technical talks this round were going at a “good pace."

No chapters have been closed during this round, which wraps up Tuesday evening. However, customs issues, food safety and annexes — small sections focused on an industry or sector — saw the most substantial progress, and many others were “generating momentum,” a source briefed on the talks said.

Discussions on certain negotiating sessions — like agriculture and rules of origin — will continue until later in the evening, Mexico’s chief negotiator, Ken Smith, told reporters Tuesday.

Mexico will not make counteroffers on certain proposals that it views as unacceptable — namely rules of origin on autos, Smith said.

A challenge beyond that, one source said, is that some proposals are very short and general. That was particularly true with the so-called sunset provision to terminate the deal if all parties don't renew it.

“When you start stripping down those proposals, some of them are very vague,” the source said, adding that it is not Mexico or Canada’s job to flesh out the U.S. negotiators’ proposals for them.

Some have speculated that President Donald Trump's administration could send a withdrawal letter any day in an effort to prod Canadian and Mexican negotiators to accept the U.S.' demands. If that were to happen, “that’s it; the U.S. is no longer part of NAFTA,” another source said, adding that Mexico would invest its energy in working on its agreement with Brazil, Argentina and European partners.

But Mexican officials will not respond to any U.S. strategy that involves sending a withdrawal notice, two sources briefed on the talks said.

Mexico opposes any U.S. strategy that offers, “here’s a clock — six months. Try to fix it. That is unproductive at the maximum level because obviously anything that [Mexico or Canada does] from that moment on is going to be seen in the light of a threat to the U.S.,” one of the sources said.

Negotiators are still aiming to wrap up talks by March, the two sources said, but Mexico will not be “hard-pressed into an agreement” because of its 2018 presidential elections. Mexico’s ruling PRI party, which is overseeing the negotiations, is currently lagging behind in early electoral polls as left-leaning Andrés Manuel López Obrador leads. The PRI party has not yet named its candidate.

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